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The case of the cat abandoned in a Brooklyn building lobby after his owner moved out grows more curious by the hour. The cat, who’s being called Tony, is currently in New York City’s Animal Care and Control facility — which means he has little time to find a new home or else he is at risk of being euthanized. Please contact animcal control and act now if you’d like to rescue what by all accounts is said to be a very sweet and trusting cat.

The story begins when an anonymous poster put up a listing on Craigslist titled “Some a**hole moved out of my complex and left their cat to die.” Along with many other people, I helped spread the word that someone had ditched a cat in the Prospect Lefferts Garden neighborhood of Brooklyn and that it needed rescuing. I also ranted about the individual who ditched their cat in this manner.

The next morning I received a text back from the Craigslist poster saying that someone had agreed to adopt the cat. Here’s the text.

Confusingly though, the update referred to in the text suggested that there were two cats in the lobby, and somewhat muddled the timeline of events. It also left many people unclear as to who or where the cats were.

It now transpires that the cat is with Animal Care and Control. It’s estimated that the male cat is two years old. He weighs 10 pounds, his behavior is said to be fine, and his only obvious ailment is eye discharge (which could probably just be the ever-popular feline herpes). The ZIP Code stating where he was found also matches the address on the original Craigslist post.

Digging deeper into the Facebook trail, it seems that someone claiming to be the original Craigslist poster, named Shannon Bennett, contests that it was the building’s super who turned the cat over to Animal Care and Control. She writes, “I’m incredibly upset with our super who promised to hold onto him until the adopter could pick him up, and I’m getting a lot of outraged messages blaming me for this.”

Shannon also writes that she intends to pick the cat up from Animal Care and Control on Saturday morning and deliver him to Rob, the original adopter she mentioned in the Craiglist update. She says that Rob has gone “above and beyond to prepare his family for a new member.”

She also says that the second cat has now been caught and provides a picture.

Shannon seems to suggest that this second cat is being transported to the second person named in the Craigslist update (who she refers to as Debbie). Following the Facebook links, it seems this second cat might be about to enter a new home with a couple of dogs as playmates.

At the moment, Shannon is catching a blast of criticism from certain commentators on her updates, partly because of the conflicting messages she’s put out about the cat’s status. But let’s remember that she actually took the time out to begin an attempted rescue process where many people would have walked by and left the cat in the lobby. Hopefully her next update will involve a happy ending all around.

About Phillip Mlynar: The self-appointed world’s foremost expert on rappers’ cats. When not penning posts on rap music, he can be found building DIY cat towers for his adopted domestic shorthair, Mimosa, and collecting Le Creuset cookware (in red). He has also invented cat sushi, but it’s not quite what you think it is.